Boys hoops Hornets, Cobras stay unbeaten

In a pair of road games Wednesday night, the Fayetteville-Manlius and Bishop Grimes boys basketball teams both maintained perfect marks – the Hornets going to 3-0, the Cobras improving to 4-0.

For F-M, a busy stretch of three games in four days began at Baldwinsville, where a blistering first-half pace and toughness down the stretch led to a comfortable 72-53 win over the Bees.

Though B’ville has shown lots of improvement early this season and took a quick 10-4 lead, that didn’t rattle the Hornets one bit, as it put together an 11-0 run in a span of less than two minutes midway through the first quarter to seize command.

Tomer Nesher earned 13 of his 19 points in the first half, capping it with a reverse lay-up and three-point play in the waning seconds as F-M took a 37-21 lead to the break.

B’ville did slow the tempo down in the third quarter and took small bites out of that lead, but never got closer than 49-39 early in the final period before the Hornets got away.

John Schurman again was steady and productive, managing 24 points to lead both sides and adding 14 rebounds as Nesher got six rebounds. Freshman Jake Wittig put together 10 points, seven assists, four steals and three rebounds as fellow ninth-grader T.J. Wheatley added 10 boards, to go with six points and six steals.

Meanwhile, Bishop Grimes, who was no. 8 in the first state Class B rankings of the season, went to Homer and rolled past the Trojans 70-42.

Again setting a fast pace, the Cobras led 24-13 after one period. Homer did slow things down a bit the rest of the half, but the third quarter saw the Cobras go on a 25-6 tear to put the game away.

Just 24 hours later, F-M met Auburn in its home opener, and the fans in the “Hornets Nest” saw a real scare from the Maroons before the hosts escaped with a 58-52 victory.

Even though F-M dominated the first quarter and secured a 19-8 lad, Auburn was not rattled. It cracked down on defense and, led by Mike Granato, moved within 27-25 by halftime.

From there, it was a back-and-forth battle. Granato, with 27 points, had more than half the Maroons’ production, and in the closing seconds F-M only led by three before a missed 3-pointer and some free throws finally allowed the Hornets to escape.

Schurman had a season-low 14 points, but backed it up with 13 rebounds. Nesher led with 15 points and added eight points, while senior Jimmy Novakowski had 12 points and five rebounds. Wittig had seven points, six assists and three steals as Wheatley contributed six points and seven rebounds.